Minbari Mondays, And Now For A Word: Defend

      This  week reports an incident from Saturday, September 16th, of our year 2259 CE, sent to us from our future by Ranger Mayann, stationed on  Minbar:

—

      Greetings, from Tuzanor:

      This day was recorded in the anals of the Anla’Shok as one of great anguish for all of us.  Even down the years, my order recalls the pain of humiliation of Ambassador Delenn, and the pain of seeing so many lives wasted so brutally.  She spoke for the innocents, even after being played for an innocent by a brutal Human.  Your reporter, like her later counterpart, deliberately made our ambassador look badly.  Yet, she arose and defended the Narn innocents being slaughtered with courage, and with honor.  And with the astuteness we see when she goes on to lead my order.  The Centauri were indeed on the path to committing war crimes, with their mass drivers, that day.  Yet, the voice of G’Kar went unheard.

To our shame.

      At the end of this terrible day, Delenn recovered, and reminded us all that you Humans have the great gift of building communities, and are responsible to use that gift.  Keep building your communities. 

We are all in need of you. 

 

Writing from Tuzanor, on Minbar

Earth year 2278,

Anla’Shok Mayann

–

     Shira’s addendum to Ranger Mayann’s report: 

     A word, or or a phrase, can bind us down the centuries.  Words like “Never Again.”   And also words like “a long line…”   That would be the line of our spiritual ancestors reminding us that duty comes in more than one form.  I think of this as “The Long Gray Line” episode.  That speech to the corps of cadets at West Point moves me to tears every time I read it. 

     Even if I now feel differently about much of Gen. Macarthur’s intent in that speech, it still never fails to stir awe at a man facing the twilight of his life, and looking forward to becoming part of that long line of those who admonish us to “make my life have meaning” in ways that do not involve the indiscriminate shedding of blood.  There is honor in defending the truth, defending those who, like this day’s Narn refugees, cannot defend themselves, and in defending peace.

     I still mourn the loss of those ideals in our society.  Already, in 1988 when I entered the US Naval Academy as a Midshipman 4th Class, it was clear that my classmates, upon commissioning in 1992, would hold very values different from those cadets of West Points addressed back in 1962, and not for the better.  That a soldier prays for peace, not a word in our time, when cadences were called glorifying brutality against “kids” and a plebe refusing to call those cadences could be punished, rather than complimented.  Nearly 40 years later, we see the shape of our new values, and I wonder how we can remember to defend the innocent, and to pray for peace, as the soldier described by the General does.

 

Last week’s review was of the season 2, episode 14: There All the Honor Lies,

Next week’s review will be (in Lurker’s Guide order) Knives…

-Shira Destinie Jones

Shira

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

There are earlier episodes, as part of a letter on the history of the Babylon Project.  

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or comment here that uses these thoughts.

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

***************** 

Click here to read, if you are interested in:

 

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or 

My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BsCs

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.